New Orleans population down 60%

FEWER than 190,000 people are living in New Orleans a year after Hurricane Katrina, according to a door-to-door survey.

The population of 187,525 is about 41% of the 454,000 people estimated to have been living in the city before the storm hit on August 29 last year.

Spokeswoman for the Louisiana Recovery Authority Natalie Wyeth called the results “the definitive, most precise set of numbers we’ve seen”.